This paper will discuss the political, economic and social aspects involved in the fall of the Roman Empire. In 395 A.D., Rome was divided into two empires, with one capital in Rome and the other in Constantinople. During that time, the western Roman Empire was being invaded by barbarian tribes from the north. In 410, the Visigoth tribe succeeded in conquering the western capital in Rome. In 476, the western Emperor Romulus Augustulus was finally overthrown at the substitute capital set up in Ravenna, and in 529 the eastern Emperor Justinian declared that the pagan religions of ancient Rome were illegal. All of these events brought about the end of the western Roman Empire, although the eastern Empire continued to flourish throughout the Middle Ages in the form of the Byzantine Empire (Ferrill, 1988, p. 82). The fall of the western Roman Empire was significant, however, because it also brought about an end to the ancient world and the values which it had represented.
Although the barbarian raids signaled the end of the western Roman Empire, there were a number of internal as well as external factors which had already weakened the Roman state prior to that event (Whitehouse, 1986, p. 170). The fall of the western capital was accomplished within less than a century; nevertheless, it has been noted that "long-term trends, often different trends in combination, can culminate in the sudden collapse of the whole system" (p. 171). Such trends in Rome may be easily traced back to the second century A.D. For example, a series of plagues during the second and third centuries contributed to the gradual breakdown of Rome's institutional structures. During that same period, the Empire also experienced civil wars and rebellions, the corruption of the office of the emperor, the decline of the governmental bureaucracy, and the erosion of economic and social conditions.
However, the deterioration of ancient Rome was vastly accelerated d...